Every day, AlloCiné recommends a film to (re)watch on TV. Tonight: Michael Douglas loses his temper.
An ordinary American, unemployed and divorced, waits interminably in his car stuck in a huge traffic jam in Los Angeles, in the scorching heat. He is so late that he will not arrive in time for his daughter’s birthday.
Taken by fury, he leaves his car and tries to make the way on foot, tolerating no obstacle in his path. He devastates a grocery store, fights with thugs, gets his hands on an arsenal, machine-guns in all directions and leaves not a partition standing. Police sergeant Prendergast, one day before his retirement, begins to track him down to prevent him from causing harm.
This is the pitch for Freefall, directed by Joel Schumacher. Released in 1993, the film depicts the fall of a man who sinks into a spiral of violence and self-destruction, but also, more broadly, the fall of the American dream.
This sticky, cathartic thriller indeed delivers an intelligent analysis of American society in full decline, at the dawn of the racial riots of 1992.
The film owes its strength above all to the excellent performance of Michael Douglas in the lead role. Opposite him, Robert Duvall embodies an opposite side, that of the honest citizen, a calm, altruistic and intuitive inspector.
Free fall by Joel Schumacher with Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey…
Tonight on Arte at 8:50 p.m.